Brit Reacts to a SWEDISH Sommarstuga | ARE THEY REALLY LIKE THIS? 

There are between 500 000 and 600 000 "sommarstugor" (directly translates to summer cottages) in Sweden. Given that there are just over 10 millions of us that about one for each 16-20, so not everyone have one but most have access to one (through friends or relatives). The ones that are rented out is just a small % but given how many exists that are still a lot.

In the kitchen, there was an oven and the empty space is for an cast iron stove, not too hard or pricey to get. The small house to the side is the outhouse and keeping firewood.

I am swedish and i can honestly say, Yep these summerhouses are very common here in Sweden. Its mostly for grandparents or a second house You have in summer which i both had growing up and still have. I visited my grandparents in a similar house like this during my childhood, its more bigger than in the video and nowdays my parents have taken it over, so i mostly visit there during christmas or summer. We have our own little bridge to a small lake and take a boat to the city whenever We feel like it. This is so common for me, so your reaction to it that You never seen it, i love it 😆❤️

There is a show called Everything for Sweden/Norway (Allt för sverige, Alt for Norge) They are so damn good. The reality show features Swedish/Norwegian Americans participating in challenges relating to Swedish/Norwegian history and culture, competing to win a reunion with their distant Swedish/Norwegian relatives.

OK heres a history lesson 😁 That house is what we call a "Torp" that was houses that the landowner let people live in in exchange of labour. Its probably at least 200 years old maybe more. The people living there were called "torpare" So they worked on the landowners fields (summer)and in the landowners forrest (winter) In exchange for living in the house and maybe a cow and a goat and a small peace of land to grow food on. They got some pay but it was not in money but in food. And that grey thing in the kitchen was where the firestove once was placed. This is from the north of sweden you see the mountains and the vast forrest. What you dont se is the mice and all the mosquitoes. He said he will get a cat. Smart move. Also he said that there will be a follow up video. Might be interesting to watch. 😎

Yes, "summer-STOws" directly translated word for word 😉

It was just a house but then there were outbuildings. Where you stored firewood, tools and garage.

In these old houses the only heatingsystem and way of cooking is with fire you need wood. No running water inside. Most of these houses don't have an indoor loo you will go to a small building we call "utedass" outdoorloo. It's incredibly relaxing to spend some time like that.

The space in the chimney is an open fire area the second area is missing iron stove area. Torp house used to be given to soldiers in the old days. My granfather had one, nowadays sommer houses are really much more than this.

This house is probably 100 years old or so without any electricity. That "workplace" is a wood iron stove. You heat your food and boil water with the help of fire. You also warm your house in the same way with wood and fire.

A summer cottage can look different, ranging from normal modern houses to small cottages without electricity or running water. This house is a normal residential building from probably 150-200 years ago? Someone seems to have built a kitchen in the 1920s-30s, but surely there is only cold water? The buildings nearby belong to the house, there is probably a wood shed and an outhouse, maybe a cow or two stood there once upon a time? There is a fireplace in the family room and the kitchen lacks a wood-burning cast iron stove. I hope he doesn't overrenovate the old house, as many do.

Wow that was a nice summer house, so much potential. Btw in the kitchen was a place for a Woodburn stove and that oven. To bake bread in that is incredibly good or pizza even pastry.

Yeah he just bought this little house and will renovate it. It’s an old very typical red ”torp”. I think similar to your thorp? A summer house in Sweden comes in all shapes though, big and small. But the key thing is that it is a secondary home mostly used in the summer or holidays. It is also very commen that owners rent it out during the summer if they aren’t using it themselves to get some extra income. A second home costs a lot of money!

We have a summer house or rather a summer cottage in my family in Sweden. It is in the middle of the forest and the only way to get to it is either to walk through a forest or by rowboat over the lake. Totally off the grid, with no electricity or running water with an outhouse when nature calls. We even have a stream going at the side that we use to cool drinks if it has not dried out during the more hot days. Luckily we have a dug well that we get water from. Would not trade it for anything in the world

Yes the first one is a fireplace. The second where the oven was, the space behind where the oven was is for baking (the little hatch covers the baking oven). As for rotten timber, you can just replace separate timber (we did in our summer home). It's not too expensive. This seems to be an "enkelstuga" (kitchen, one living room on ground floor) with a livable attic.

This is the First part in a series of how he fixes the house up. And the beauty of Swedish summer, of course😊

That was a real living house back in the past for "torpare" (you could call it poor farmer). That place you asked about is for cooking. The old way. My experience of sommarstuga is much more simple and much smaller. We used to borrow one during Summer from my God Mother. That place had no electricity or rinning water. It was really small and I don't remember if we had "gasol" for cooking. But we did had a sauna that you heated up with wood. And the water was from a well. And the location high up on a Mountain in the Forrest, but not far from a big lake.

You can definitely rent a summer house, the landowner where we have ours rent the other 2 houses on our headland via Airbnb

You should watch the norwegian group Ylvis with their song “Cabin”. It pretty much sums up these type of cottages 😅

If you get away from the larger cities and the coast, you can find houses quite cheap.

You should try searching for couples buying houses in Sweden, I've noticed there's quite a few channels on youtube that focuses around the subject of foreigners who've bought houses (some just like this one) in the middle of nowhere here in Sweden. Apparently they're considered very affordable, even though pretty much all of them need to be renovated, most likely the prices are so low because of their location (far away from towns/villages etc) and the time/money investment that's needed. As a brit you have the advantage of a much stronger currency, so I would still think this type of summer cottage would be pretty affordable for you if you have a decent income to start with. Most people tend to renovate on their own or with the help of family and friends rather then hiring a professional since Swedes love DIY (unless it's something to big to handle on your own or if it's something that needs to be done by a tradesman for insurance purposes).

Most Swedes used to live in the countryside until the late 1800 where there was a couple of years with really harsh and cold summers that was so cold that nothing grew and people where starving and as a result some people moved away from their farms to the cities Some of these summer cabins are old small farms that where inherited down threw the generations and kept in the same families and are a place where all the relatives go in the summer to get together and meet each other Some of them are located in remote areas like in the mountains or on an island with no electricity except solar power and no running water and a classic Swedish outhouse instead of a toilet because some people like a simple life like that of their ancestors on their vacation There are also more modern summer cabins that are more like a modern house, only smaller there are also typically dedicated cabin areas around a lake or along the sea coast with summer houses that are really expensive the ones to a a lake, the sea or close to a beach are the most expensive ones usually depending on the condition

the area is for awood stove... and sommerhouses are rented..

the title say "I regretted it instantly XD"

0:55 That reasoning... It's exactly the same as I feel when I am hearing icelandic. xD There are also tendencies of this feeling when I am hearing german and dutch. :)

the other building was a storeage/toolshed

That house is easily over 100 years old. i hope he doesnt "destroy" it by renovating it to modern standars. many swedes think that kind of house should be preserved.

To be fair.. I thought less of the interior once seeing it on the outside.. sure alot of things to fix, but it seems relaxing. The oven part is where you burn the wood and cook. I feel priviliged that our sommarstuga had electricy and plumming but there are many who doesn't so you'll need wood and an outhose. We had our sommarstuga together with my grandparents and all my fathers 4 siblings, so we had 6 smaller bedrooms on the 2nd flor with beds for all the parents and their kids, 2,5 living room areas, kitchen and bathroom with shower.. also a tool shed and we made a dog stable(?).. We could at most be 23 people in it at once and used to celebrate Midsommar there alot. Sure it were REALLY tight living but true.. it wouldn't be a "sommarstuga" if you ask anybody.. more a sommarHOUSE, but at the time it were all I knew and it were painted just like that.. red and white.. so it were a sommarstuga for me and always will be my first thought when hearing the word.

Summer cottages are as common in Finland as they are in Sweden

3:21 "vedspis" he says. might mean fire stove. some swedish houses has a fireplace that can heat up the house, by burning wood, and might have stove top on top of it, it looks different from the earlier fireplace. i think it's not too unusual for some houses to have one or some kind of hybrid system where you can heat the house with wood or electricity, not sure how functional some of those fireplaces are. 3:24 "en slags gammal ugn", a kind of old oven.

Tere is a fireplace in the living room, and there would have been a woddenstowe in the kitchen. Looks like someone took it. It can be replaced an buy an old one or a replica .

I also heard England incorporated over 600 words into the english language from the vikings.

Yes, it is possible to rent cottages, some are very small, and therefore afordable, but then usually very simple, without kitchen and so on. Old cottages are usually far away in the forrest, and needs to be fixed a lot, like this house in the video, that would be comparably unexpensive to buy. If you can't afford it, it is very common to go camping, with a tent or trailer, like the one you saw in the video with his mother, and siblings I think it was.

I think it should be easy for you and learn Swedish because all my english speaking friend have learn it very fast You are right many words are similar

Most summer houses will be more modern I'll say with a kitchen, proper oven + such, and not in such desperate need of renovations.

Have a guesthouse on my property that has an open stove (öppen spis)just like in the clip, you can rent it if you want and make a fire in it just like they did back in the day when there were no electric stoves😊 I also have water from a well with superior quality😊 Think you would like it

His first comment: I accidentally bought this house....

Had to sell my seaside summershouse…so sad…

0:45 "jag råkade köpa det här huset" - i accidentally bought this house oh my, sounds rough

All the little red houses around the house all belong to the same property and the land. It's not quite true you don't have to be middle or upper class to own one or have one in your family. In the old days because Swedes immigrated to USA there became so many empty houses so they were auctioned of for 1.skr so that they would get lived in and that's why so many people have great grandparents that bought and they always stayed in a family and past on from generation to generation. But according to British finances these cute little cottages are very cheap and there are quite a few British and Germans that also buy.

He bought a summer house and regret it it says

He who did this video said he’d do a series of videos on renovations of the house. Got me curious. Could I have the link to this video? Like to see the end result. 😊

No the space are to firewood stove in the kitchen.

it's a country cottage.

It's a Pizza Oven where you bake pizzas that you thought were a oven. I mean, it kind of is, but you lit a fire in there and put in the pizza.

Renting a sommarstuga is a thing. Google hyra sommarstuga.

Well, this is a really unmodern house. My parents summer house is more or less an ordinary house with everything modern you need including fiber internet ;)

Why not use the CC-function? At least it gives you an idea of what is said.

ca: 600 000 med familj har tillgång till en sommarstuga

Open fire place m8 :)

Why are all your videos about Sweden?